BRAHMS' SONGS
Sung by MARK RAPHAEL (Baritone)
A Song of Brahms.
THERE was at least one occasion-there may well have been many-when a song of Brahms had a share in emphasizing the utter futility of war. It was, if memory serves, near the end of 1916, when the first Somme ' push ' had petered out into a standstill, and the two sides were very near one another-so near that voices could be heard and even occasional scraps of conversation picked up, from the opposite trench. And one evening, during a lull in the usual ' hate,' one of the enemy sang to his own fellows, and, whether intentionally or not, to us, too. He was a real singer, one who knew his job, with a clear, baritone voice, and the song he chose was Brahms' ' Wie bist du, meine Kowgin, durch sanfte Giite wonnevoil (' Gracious and fair art thou, my Queen'). He sang it well, without a trace of the cheap sentimentality which is sometimes allowed to slip into even such a noble sqng, but,with every bit of sentiment that it really holds. It was a time when men knew better than ever before what queenly graciousness meant, and though there was art in the singing, it was forgotten in the truth and beauty of the song. There was no applause : both sides paid Brahms and the singer the higher tribute of silence. Most of our people must have been wholly ignorant of what it meant, but almost everyone found in it some echo of his own best thoughts and there was one listener at least
-. who has not yet ceased to be grateful.
Did he emerge safely from the War, that singer. with his art and fine voice unimpaired ? And does he ever sing that song now ? If he does, and if he can recapture from his memory, the inspiration of that evening and its surroundings, he is singing it as only few can do.
D. M. C.